UK has no intention to engage in direct conflict with Russia

The British authorities are not going to get involved in a direct conflict with Russia in the light of the events in Ukraine, but will continue to provide assistance to Kyiv, said minister of State for Defense for the United Kingdom, Ben Wallace, reported from The Washington Post.

"We have not engaged, and we won't be engaging in direct conflict with the Russian army or Russian state either. I was very clear in the buildup to this invasion that, you know, whether we‑‑people like it or not, Ukraine was not in NATO, and we were not, therefore, going to deploy troops in‑‑on the ground in a combat way at all,” he said.

"Article 51 of the United Nations allows a country to defend itself. Ukraine is perfectly within its right to take action to defend itself from an invader such as Russia who is illegally occupying and invading their country. That is international law. You know, it is not unheard of that countries will, you know, attack their attacker by getting further up the supply chain, and I think that's just military logic,” he noted. 

"The United Kingdom's weapons, first of all, we haven't really given them weapons that probably could allow them to do that. We haven't given them helicopters or aircraft or very long‑range equipment. So it is unlikely British weapons could be used across their border, but we are giving weapons to Ukraine in accordance with sort of United Nations Article 51, allowing them to defend themselves, and if they used British weapons, French weapons, German, anybody's weapons to achieve that effect, as long as it's in accordance with international law and humanitarian law and Geneva Conventions, then, of course, that's something that we recognize as a low possibility because of the type of weapons we provided but nevertheless a possibility because that was the condition we gave it to the Ukrainians was to defend themselves,” he added.

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